New York City police fatally shot a knife-wielding man early Friday morning after he scaled the Brooklyn Bridge and lunged at officers during a standoff, marking the second deadly encounter with an armed attacker in the city within the same week.
The incident unfolded around 3:30 a.m., when officers spotted the man walking on the bridge’s cables. Members of the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU) climbed the structure in an attempt to persuade him to come down to safety, according to ESU Assistant Chief Gerard Dowling.
What followed was a nearly hour-long standoff in which the man made threatening statements and refused to comply with officers’ commands to drop his weapon.
“He stated, ‘I want to die, I want you to kill me, I have a bomb, you’re not going to make me do something bad to the cops,’” Dowling told reporters, according to The New York Post.
Despite repeated efforts to de-escalate the situation, the man eventually began descending the cables and, when he came within three feet of an officer, lunged at him. At that moment, another ESU member stationed on the bridge’s roadbed fired a single shot, striking the man.
“At that point, a member of ESU who was on the roadbed of the bridge discharged his weapon one time, striking the man,” Dowling said.
The man was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Brooklyn-bound lanes of the bridge were closed for several hours during the Friday morning commute, snarling traffic for peak-hour travelers.
A Deadly Week for Knife Attacks
Friday’s shooting comes just days after another violent knife attack in Manhattan. On Monday, Erin Piacenti, a young wife and new mother who had recently returned from maternity leave to her vice president position at Bank of America, was stabbed and killed in Times Square. A second unidentified man was also injured in the attack and was taken to the hospital, where he remained until his release on Tuesday.
The attacker, 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros, of Queens, was shot and killed by police after she confronted them near an NYPD substation while armed with two kitchen knives. Cisneros had a history of mental health-related outbursts, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,’” Tisch said during a press briefing.
Cisneros had ignored repeated commands to drop the knives before officers fired.
Rising Concerns Over Public Safety
The back-to-back incidents have reignited concerns about public safety in New York City, particularly in high-traffic tourist areas like Times Square and the Brooklyn Bridge. Just weeks earlier, another stabbing occurred near Times Square when a man was stabbed in the head during an argument inside a subway station.
While police have not confirmed whether the man shot on the Brooklyn Bridge was the same individual involved in any prior incidents, the pattern of knife-related violence has put city officials and law enforcement on alert.
Authorities have not released the name of the man killed Friday, and an investigation into the shooting is ongoing, as is standard in officer-involved incidents. The NYPD has not indicated whether the man’s reported claim of carrying a bomb was verified.
The deaths of both Cisneros and the Brooklyn Bridge man underscore the challenges officers face when confronting individuals in mental health crises who are armed with deadly weapons. In both cases, officers attempted verbal de-escalation before resorting to lethal force, according to official accounts.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has not yet publicly commented on Friday’s shooting, but the incident is likely to fuel ongoing debates about policing, mental health resources, and public safety measures in the city.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/another-knife-wielding-maniac-charges-police-in-nyc